Trash Becomes Precious; When Design is in the Heart of Society

JOHANNA T?RNQVIST, the Swedish jewelry and garment designer, designed this dress from trash.

A Swedish jewelry and garment designer has turned trash precious. This sounds very weird; doesn’t it? In brief, JOHANNA T?RNQVIST is a designer who creates jewelry and garments out of recycled textile and plastic material. She collects waste produced by the daily consumption of her family and friends, turning this worthless material into valuable fashionable products.

Johanna treats the trash in the same precise way that fashion designers follow in Haute Couture; she refines trash, weaves, and stiches waste material together, and the end result is valuable beautiful products. This is known as up-cycling.

Meeting Johanna at the Swedish Institute in Stockholm was a brand new and inspiring incident, hearing her story and finding out what her main motivation was to create this brilliant project was such an eye-opening experience! Knowing that Sweden exports garbage from other countries to produce energy, it’s deemed unnecessary to raise awareness on any environmental problem facing her country. On that particular issue, Johanna said: “Garbage isn’t the main problem in Sweden. The Swedish government has succeeded in providing its citizens with ample information on how to reuse and recycle trash. I believe the main problem is that we live in a highly consumptive society, therefore generating more garbage.”

She added: “Sweden is a rich country; consequently citizens are financially secure and able to buy new products and get rid of the old ones by throwing them away at a very fast pace without thinking of the consequences, and without paying any attention to the hassles of production in general. We have big corporations in Sweden producing items such as clothes and furniture for very cheap prices. The democratic vision followed by those corporations “Design for Everybody” is solving the problem of the residents in poorer countries by making those essential products affordable for everyone. On the other hand, it is also very easy to purchase those same items at other countries with better financial prospects.”

Furthermore, Johanna mentioned that in Sweden 15 kilograms of textiles per capita are being consumed every year, which is tantamount to around 75 garments; usually divided as follows: 15 pieces given to second hand stores, 20 left in the wardrobe, and 40 thrown away in the garbage. Over the last 10 years, a 40% rise in the consumption of clothes by the Swedish population has been recorded.

Johanna started the “Precious Trash” initiative to highlight the common problem resulting from this alarmingly increasing state of consumption, and in her opinion those items are “losing their value.” She concluded our conversation saying: “My idea is to revalue used things and to reassess the efforts exerted in the production process in the first place; which inspired me to up-cycle trash and turn it into valuable products that can be used and reused.”

Project “Precious Trash” in pictures

What do you think about up-cycling? If you are inspired or were able to learn something from this initiative; it will be great if you share your opinion with us. Discussion can generate ideas, which can be beneficial for our countries especially those suffering from serious environmental problems.